Writer's Digest Book Expo - New York, NY

An exclusive insider's perspective on the business, as well as the art of authorship

Wednesday, June 1, 2005, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, in New York City is the site of this year's conference, which is an official event of BookExpo America, the publishing world's biggest U.S. trade show, and the only event associated with the BEA that is open to the general public.

In just three short years, the BEA/Writer's Digest Books Writer's Conference has become one of the premier writing conferences in the country, with its wide variety of programming that includes workshops by leading authors, editors, agents and other industry professionals. Attendees can:

* Meet editors, authors, and agents. Hear what they're really buying and how to get work accepted
* Attend specific workshops, taught by industry professionals, that will help them get their writing published. Breakout sessions include workshops on fiction and non-fiction writing, magazine writing, mystery writing, proposals, e-queries and more
* Pitch their book and get instant feedback


One of the major highlights of the conference is the "Instant Pitch Session." One of the largest assembled gatherings of agents and editors will be at the conference to listen to book pitches and give instant feedback and solid advice. Conference attendees will find out how to find the right agent and what editors are buying. They will participate in Breakout Sessions, learning how to write effective queries and synopsis; create non-fiction book proposals; and package a book's marketing plan. They will pitch their own book proposals to the editors and agents on the panels and get instant feedback.

Registration can be made on-line at www.bookexpoamerica.com/writersconference. Registration fee is $169, which includes a free one-year subscription, or renewal, to Writer's Digest magazine!


Speakers


Authors, agents and other industry professionals confirmed for the conference are:

* Jonathan Karp, Senior Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of the Random House imprints within the Random House Publishing Group. He has edited some of the most widely read books of our time, including the #1 bestsellers, Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand and What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson. He has also edited such writers as Mario Puzo, Molly Ivins, Kenneth Pollack, Susan Orlean, Mark Winegardner, and Christopher Buckley. Karp wrote the book and lyrics for the musical How to Save the World and Find True Love in 90 Minutes, which premiered in August 2004 at The New York International Fringe Festival.

* Noah Lukeman, President of Lukeman Literary Management Ltd, which he founded in 1996. His clients include winners of the Pulitzer Prize, American Book Award, Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Award, finalists for the National Book Award finalists, Edgar Award, and multiple New York Times bestsellers. He is the author of The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying out of the Rejection Pile and The Plot Thickens: 8 Ways to Bring Fiction to Life

* Heather Sellers, author of Page After Page (Writer's Digest Books). Ms. Sellers is an award-winning writer and professor who has taught writing workshops for the past twenty years and the director of the creative writing program at Hope College. She is the author of Drinking Girls and Their Dresses and Georgia Under Water, which was selected by Barnes & Noble for the 2001 “Discover Great New Writers” series. She is also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction. Her children's book, Cubby and Spike: Ice Cream Island Adventure, was published in the fall of 2004

* Michael Cader, president of Cader Books and the popular purveyor of publishing news with his daily email newsletter, Publishers Lunch

* Donald Maass, president of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York. Don is also the author of Writing the Breakout Novel (Writer's Digest Books).

* John Warner, is the editor of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (www.mcsweeneys.net) and the co-author of My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook by George W. Bush, which was a Washington Post paperback best seller for seven weeks, including one week at No. 1. His book, Sleeping with Oprah and Other Routes to Achieving Fame, Fortune and a #1 New York Times bestseller, will be published by Writer's Digest Books this fall.

* Jane Friedman, Executive Editor of Writer's Digest Books

* Lauren Mosko, editor of Novel & Short Stories Writer's Market

* Kristin D. Godsey, editor of Writer's Digest magazine, will also be among the panelists and moderators at the conference.

* Other authors in attendance include Elaura Niles, Some Writers Deserve to Starve; Robert Masello, Robert's Rules of Writing; Eric Maisel, A Writer's Paris; Nancy Kress, Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint; and many others. The most anticipated writing conference of the year comes to the center of the publishing world – New York City – in 2005, when the BookExpo America/Writer's Digest Books Writer's Conference once again will present a full-day of programming designed to help writers improve their craft and get published.


The Writer's Digest Bookstore will be on-site with signings scheduled throughout the day and Writer's Digest Books' best-selling titles available.